1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to novel fluorohydrocarbons, to their synthesis and use.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Fluorocarbon compounds due to their inertness have found use as electronic coolant or leak testing fluids. Other compounds having good solubility for oxygen have been investigated as artificial blood substitutes. However, the present fluorocarbons are unduly expensive due to the high content of fluorine and the method of synthesis. Furthermore, the principal industrial processes employed in their synthesis, namely electrochemical fluorination or cobalt trifluoride fluorination do not result in pure substances but mixtures of compounds containing impurities and incompletely fluorinated compounds. Pure substances of known structure are desired for clinical applications.
Another problem with fluorocarbon materials is that the excellent inertness of these materials prevents their active excretion through metabolic processes so that there appears to be no mechanism for their elimination from the body, other than by diffusion to and evaporation through the skin or lungs. Even though these chemicals are inert there is a risk in allowing them to remain indefinitely in body tissues.
It has recently been proposed that by choosing fluorochemicals of sufficiently high vapor pressure their eventual elimination via the lungs and skin can be assured. While such an approach has merit it appears likely that in large animals such as dogs and probably man enough of these chemicals will be absorbed in depot fat or in brain or spinal cord lipids from which their subsequent clearance will be very slow indeed. Since many "inert" fluorochemicals have anesthetic properties, subtle behavioral changes in higher mammals might result from such incorporation.